Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2017 was the sixth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a national final hosted by Krista Siegfrids.[3] This was Krista’s second year hosting UMK. Yle announced the selected acts on 23 November 2016.[4] The show took place on 28 January 2017 at Espoo Metro Areena, in Espoo.[5] The winning entry was determined by public voting and the votes from ten international jury panels.[5]

Yle opened a submission period between 1 September 2016 and 5 September 2016 in order for interested parties to submit their entries.[6] At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. The submitted songs were not allowed to exceed three minutes, but could contain lyrics in any language. A panel of experts appointed by Yle selected entries for the competition from the received submissions. Yle filmed promotional music videos for each of the competing entries, which were released on 28 December 2016.[7]

The final took place on 28 January 2017 where ten acts competed. The running order for the show was revealed two days before the final. "Blackbird" performed by Norma John was selected as the winner.[8] The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and ten international juries from Estonia, France, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 430 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and online voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 430 points rounded to the nearest integer: 43 points.

Detailed International Jury Votes[10]
Draw	Song											Total
1	"Circle of Light"	1	12		6	2	2	8	10	2	10	53
2	"Arrows"	8			1			2	4			15
3	"Love Yourself"		2	10	2		8		8	1	6	37
4	"Reach Out for the Sun"		4	8	12	10	6	1			2	43
5	"Caveman"	2		1		1					1	5
6	"Blackbird"	12	10	12	4	12	10	12	6	4	12	94
7	"Helppo elämä"	4	1	2		4	4	4	12	8	4	43
8	"My Little World"			4	10				1	6		21
9	"Perfect Villain"	6	8	6	8	6	12	10		10	8	74
10	"Paradise"	10	6			8	1	6	2	12		45
International Jury Spokespersons
– Mart Normet – Edoardo Grassi – Hera Ólafsdóttir – Alon Amir – Zita Kaminska – Hege Aarflot Nelvik – Federico Llano – Edward af Sillén – Andrii Olefirov – William Lee Adams

Norma John made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Blackbird" as the Finnish Eurovision entry. On 2 April, they performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French. Between 3 and 6 April, the Finnish duo took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where they performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[11][12] On 8 April, Norma John performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[13]

Norma John took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May.[17] This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

At the end of the show, Finland was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Finland placed twelfth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 92 points: 51 points from the televoting and 41 points from the juries.

The following five members will comprise the Finnish jury: [18]

• Jonas Olsson – Chairperson – producer, songwriter
• Iisa Pajula – singer-songwriter
• Marcus Sjöström – music director
• Virve Rosti – singer, represented Finland in the 1987 contest
• Kalle Mäkipelto - music producer

Split voting results from Finland (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Pajula	J. Olsson	M. Sjöström	V. Rosti	K. Mäkipelto	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Sweden	5	2	1	2	1	1	12	4	7
02	Georgia	14	6	3	13	7	8	3	17
03	Australia	2	1	6	4	4	3	8	12
04	Albania	11	17	12	16	13	16		16
05	Belgium	3	16	10	12	10	11		2	10
06	Montenegro	15	14	17	14	16	17		8	3
07	Finland
08	Azerbaijan	13	15	14	11	8	13		14
09	Portugal	1	3	7	1	2	2	10	1	12
10	Greece	16	12	9	15	14	14		15
11	Poland	8	13	2	10	11	9	2	11
12	Moldova	17	5	5	3	9	5	6	3	8
13	Iceland	4	10	13	6	6	6	5	6	5
14	Czech Republic	7	11	16	9	12	12		13
15	Cyprus	9	4	4	7	3	4	7	5	6
16	Armenia	10	9	8	8	5	7	4	7	4
17	Slovenia	6	8	11	5	15	10	1	9	2
18	Latvia	12	7	15	17	17	15		10	1

Split voting results from Finland (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Pajula	J. Olsson	M. Sjöström	V. Rosti	K. Mäkipelto	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	18	10	5	12	15	11		14
02	Poland	21	24	11	19	23	22		22
03	Belarus	17	6	23	23	19	21		17
04	Austria	19	5	22	20	18	17		24
05	Armenia	11	22	14	14	8	13		20
06	Netherlands	16	9	17	7	16	12		16
07	Moldova	23	7	13	4	7	8	3	6	5
08	Hungary	14	23	15	9	25	19		7	4
09	Italy	2	12	1	1	17	4	7	3	8
10	Denmark	13	8	12	10	10	7	4	21
11	Portugal	1	3	10	2	3	3	8	1	12
12	Azerbaijan	25	11	18	15	14	16		18
13	Croatia	26	18	26	6	11	20		11
14	Australia	3	1	3	5	4	2	10	15
15	Greece	22	26	19	24	22	26		23
16	Spain	24	14	16	22	9	18		26
17	Norway	9	19	9	11	6	10	1	9	2
18	United Kingdom	8	13	8	13	12	9	2	13
19	Cyprus	15	15	7	8	2	6	5	12
20	Romania	12	17	24	25	26	24		8	3
21	Germany	7	16	20	16	20	15		25
22	Ukraine	20	21	25	26	13	25		19
23	Belgium	6	20	6	17	24	14		2	10
24	Sweden	5	2	2	3	1	1	12	5	6
25	Bulgaria	4	4	4	18	5	5	6	4	7
26	France	10	25	21	21	21	23		10	1